1. Technical Field
This invention relates to clothes hangers and, more particularly, to an adjustable clothes hanger for accommodating alternate sized garments.
2. Prior Art
For most people, household chores are a fact of life. Vacuuming debris from carpeting, polishing furniture, waxing floors and cleaning windows are necessary tasks which must be done regularly to ensure a healthy and clean household. In particular, most consumers wash laundry on a regular basis. Whether tossing a child's dirty baseball uniform into the wash before a big game, laundering bed linens for unexpected company, or simply washing soiled bath towels and washcloths for the next day's use, most people utilize a washing machine at least once a week. For those consumers with large families and children, laundry must be washed on a daily basis, simply in order to keep all household members in clean clothing. Once clothes have been cleaned in a washing machine, the next step typically involves hanging the laundered clothing on a wire or plastic hanger. Hangers are extremely useful devices which enable consumers to keep clean or freshly pressed clothing neat and wrinkle-free between wear.
While hangers are practical household tools, use of these devices is not without drawbacks. Specifically, certain clothing items such as oversized sweaters, jackets and similar goods, are simply too large and heavy to be fully supported by an average hanger. Further, delicate fabric material such as wool, angora, silk, rayon and other fine linen, can become easily misshapen when hung on standard wire or plastic hangers. As many consumers would attest, donning an expensive cashmere sweater, only to find that unsightly conical “bumps” have formed on the sweater's neckline as a result of hanging heavily off the ends of the hanger, can be an extremely frustrating experience.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,287,674 to Sutton discloses a garment hanger system including a hook member, a hanger body and an information indicator mounted on the hanger body. The hanger body includes a reinforcing rib section disposed adjacent a mounting structure that receives the hook member. The information indicator is adapted to mount around the hook member and detachably interlock with the reinforcing rib section. The information indicator includes one or more walls defining a top opening and a hollow cavity. Preferably, the end of the hook member passes through the top opening such that the indictor can slide down the hook member. The sidewalls of the indicator are preferably adapted, for example, with locking nibs, to detachably interlock to the reinforcing rib section of the hanger body. Unfortunately, this prior art example does not include adjustable hooks for hanging tank tops or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,234,671 to Avinger discloses an adjustable wreath hanger, preferably made of molded plastic, that preferably comprises a hanger strip attachable to the top of a door or other object and a hook strip that slidably engages the hanger strip to permit selective variation of the distance between a rearwardly facing door hook and a forwardly facing wreath hook. The hanger strip preferably comprises a plurality of forwardly facing detent members into which a tooth projecting rearwardly from an engagement tab on the hook strip can be selectively engaged or disengaged to vary the relative positions of the two strips, thereby effectively elongating the length of the wreath hanger. Unfortunately, this prior art example does not include adjustable hooks for hanging tank tops or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,243,823 to Cresap discloses an apparel apparatus that is especially useful for hanging narrow or small necked shirts and sweaters. It is a collapsible garment hanger, or clothing hanger, that has moving parts. There are two hanger arms that rotate about pins on a hanger body, and there is a fulcrum about which a quick-release lever and release tabs pivot so that a locking mechanism can be manipulated. All of the parts used with the apparatus are inexpensive plastic parts that can be injection molded, and the apparatus can be quickly assembled by snapping parts together. Unfortunately, this prior art example does not include adjustable hooks for hanging tank tops or the like.
Accordingly, the present invention is disclosed in order to overcome the above noted shortcomings. The present invention is convenient and easy to use, lightweight yet durable in design, and designed for accommodating alternate sized garments. The present invention is simple to use, inexpensive, and designed for many years of repeated use.